1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus having a function of combining a plurality of images together, and to an imaging method and a program thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In panoramic photography using a camcorder (a camera built in VTR), a digital camera, or the like, when shooting panoramic images while stopping the sweeping motion of the camera at each stage or having a continuous sweeping motion, it is necessary to sweep the camera at low speed in order to prevent blurring of the resulting images.
In the latter case, the shooting may require a high-speed shutter.
In regards to this, Japanese Patent No. 3928222 (Patent Document 1) proposes a shooting method that enables fast sweeping of a camera while maintaining an image resolution.
The technique used in this shooting method is a technique that enables a camera to shoot images as if it is focusing on one point by detecting a sweeping direction of the camera and an angular velocity of the sweeping and changing the optical axis at the same angular velocity in a reverse direction of the sweeping, thereby negating a change in a resulting image.
Although it is necessary to use an acceleration sensor or an angular acceleration sensor in order to implement the control method, Japanese Patent No. 3925299 (Patent Document 2) proposes a method that enables appropriately to control the optical axis even when the sensors and a feedback circuit for controlling them are not provided.
In this case, the method is used as a monitoring system, in which the number of pulses applied to a stepping motor used for controlling a shooting direction is counted and an optical axis control is performed in accordance with the counted value.